05 March 2007

Fiscal irresponsibility

Ah, for the days when "conservative Republicans" really believed in small government and fiscal responsibility.

A prescription drug benefit of the U.S. Medicare program is a "financially irresponsible" addition to a system that was already on course for possible bankruptcy, the U.S. government's top accountant said in an interview on Sunday.

"The prescription drug bill is probably the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s ... because we promise way more than we can afford to keep," U.S. Comptroller General David Walker said on CBS' "60 Minutes."

Walker said $8 trillion would be needed immediately, invested at treasury rates, to cover the gap between what Medicare is expected to take in and what it is expected to cost over the next 75 years.

The main problems? A tsunami of about-to-retire Baby Boomers and an administration that apparently felt, like Teen Talk Barbie, that "math class is hard."